Development Center (FFRDC) that provides the facilities, tools, and models needed to advance science across the atmospheric and geoscience community. NCAR employs several hundred scientists, whose work and research are supported by the NCAR Library, a small, specialized library committed to the facilitation and stewardship of NCAR research. Together, NCAR and UCAR share a mission of supporting research across the broad atmospheric and geoscience community. That community is comprised of over 150 UCAR Member and Affiliate institutions, each of which offers advanced degrees in related scientific disciplines. Many UCAR Members operate under budgets that render access to the top journals in the field impossible. For this reason and for several decades, Members have asked the NCAR Library to provide them with access to scholarship written by UCAR researchers. While the NCAR Library is fortunate enough to have subscriptions to most of the journals publishing this scholarship, we have been unable to provide access to UCAR scholarship outside of our own institution, owing to the terms of our subscription and publishing agreements. Motivated by these challenges, the NCAR Library began in early 2009 to advocate for the adoption of an open access mandate across UCAR. After only a few months, this policy was passed, making it the first to be adopted by any FFRDC. Open Access Week 2009 came on the heels of that achievement. Because UCAR is a highly decentralized, busy place, we chose to celebrate “Open Access Day” rather than “Open Access Week,” and opted to plan one central event. We hosted a panel discussion between George Strawn, then the Chief Information Officer of the NSF, who spoke about the role of the federal government in fostering and funding major technological innovations, and John Wilbanks, Vice President of Science at Creative Commons, who presented the merging of these innovations and communication technologies as an inevitable, necessary step in the advancement of science. Introduced by Rick Anthes, President of UCAR, and moderated by Richard Katz, Director of the EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research (ECAR), co-sponsor of the day’s events, the discussion was attended by a robust crowd of lab and department directors, UCAR governance, scientists, and administrators. Conversation following the panel discussion was lively, reflecting a high level of interest and engagement in the material presented. In planning Open Access Day 2009, our hope for the outcome of our celebration was simply to raise awareness about the potential of open access to transform scientific communication. Judging by the diverse audience the discussion attracted, RLI 270 22 Open Access Week: Library Strategies for Advancing Change ( C O N T I N U E D ) JUNE 2010 RESEARCH LIBRARY ISSUES: A BIMONTHLY REPORT FROM ARL, CNI, AND SPARC
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